tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38912713685435271892015-03-29T20:58:02.550-04:00Catchin' Some WavesRick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.comBlogger854125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-23421738954392468192015-03-29T20:55:00.000-04:002015-03-29T20:58:02.566-04:00A Most Controversial Man&nbsp;<style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Times New Roman"; panose-1:0 2 2 6 3 5 4 5 2 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-parent:""; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} </style><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Never one to shy from controversy, the short trek from Bethany to Jerusalem found Him with a growing crowd of the curious and the confessors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Just days before in the little suburb village the One who had become a sensation in both Galilee to the north and Judea to the south by His miraculous powers had done the impossible again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>This time His friend Lazarus, dead and entombed for four days had responded to Jesus’ clarion call in the cemetery to “Come forth". </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Wide-eyed onlookers must have quickly spread the news around the village, whose population was swelling by pilgrims passing through on their way to the weeklong Passover celebration in Jerusalem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>“He raised a dead man to life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I saw it with my own eyes”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>So, it was no surprise on the Sunday that kicked off the festival He was surrounded as He made His way to the Holy City.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Surely none of them, other than Jesus, could have imagined how the shouts of joy and exuberance in God’s salvation would within a few short days turn to calls for His execution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Even His twelve disciples, who had been given ample warning that this would be their last Passover with Him; that this visit to Jerusalem would result in His crucifixion seemed to ignore His purpose for this Passover.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Maybe they just got caught up in the moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Certainly they never imagined how the man they followed – they had already come to believe He was the Messiah – would plummet from the exalted Son of David, the deliverer of the oppressed nation to being traded for the life of a known insurrectionist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Yet Jesus not only knew what would transpire those coming days known as “passion week”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Imagine knowing that within these city walls waited your unjust arrest, trial and execution for the crimes of others in just a few days, yet being compelled, not by some suicidal death wish, but by your love for those who would hate you to refuse to retreat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Of course we can’t imagine that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The events of that week, which included stirring up even more “controversy” by upsetting the apple cart of hypocrisy among the religious elite to the common people were all carefully orchestrated by something more than “fate”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>This was the culmination of an eternal plan to make possible the reconciliation of estranged mankind back to a relationship with our Creator God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Around the world this Sunday multiplied millions will gather in churches to remember and celebrate Jesus of Nazareth’s ride on the colt of a donkey through the city gates and into the welcoming throngs of a people longing for a political leader to free them from the grip of Roman domination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>To them He would return Israel back to its long ago place of a proud and independent kingdom, reigning from the throne of His ancestor and national hero David.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Palm Sunday is a day that should be full of mixed emotions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>On the one hand we’re celebrating with the multitudes, shouting “Hosanna”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But on the other hand perhaps we should be shouting, “Turn around. This isn’t going to end well”, because we’ve read the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>We know what horrible suffering He’ll endure, and that by the setting of the Sabbath sun He’ll die a brutal death.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s a tricky day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But it’s a day worthy of our expectation and our exultation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>If it has never grabbed your attention, perhaps this is the year to give it some thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The week ushered in by Palm Sunday was a week like no other in all of history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In fact human history turns on the events that transpired.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>That includes your history and mine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>So, take time to consider this most controversial Man.</div>Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-92100819258472720792015-03-02T11:51:00.001-05:002015-03-02T11:52:40.457-05:00Dare We Take Such Risks&nbsp;<style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Times New Roman"; panose-1:0 2 2 6 3 5 4 5 2 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-parent:""; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} </style><br /> <br /><div class="MsoNormal">Thursday marks a week since a horrific crime shocked the entire Outer Banks community and even more so our faith community, which has reached, out to and opened itself up to the homeless who live among us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>While staying in one of our churches and for reasons I have not yet heard, one of the guests of <i>A Room in the Inn </i>violently stabbed another guest, killing him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">And it happened in a church. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>A Room in the Inn</i> is a cooperative effort supported by numerous churches providing shelter and meals during the cold months for those who have nowhere else to live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Fourteen local churches open the doors to their facilities, using classrooms and lobbies as dormitories for a week at a time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Church kitchens serve breakfast and dinner and bagged lunches are prepared for the guests each day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">It is an outreach staffed largely by church volunteers, each with a concern for those without their own homes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>No other such shelter exists here in Dare County, whether public or private.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And while some are shocked to learn there are homeless people living amongst us in this resort county (with multimillion dollar beach homes), some 39 different individuals found a warm, dry dwelling and meals in the participating churches last year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>As many as 17 stayed overnight at my church in January.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">You won’t see the homeless unless you know what to look for and where to look.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>With no urban center they seek to blend in, not desiring any sort of public recognition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Many of them have jobs, but with employment difficult to find in the off-season, they’re income levels don’t support rent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In the cold months (and haven’t we had some cold this winter) living outdoors in tents or under unoccupied rental homes is not an option.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">It does no good to deny their existence or to wish they would go away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; Burying our collective heads in the sand isn't a viable option.&nbsp; </span>The reality is they are here, some by their own choosing, some by unfortunate choices and others because the promise of employment and a new start never materialized.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Many suffer from one form or another of mental illness, which only adds another level to the need for care...one which a church-based program cannot provide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">What took place last Thursday morning after breakfast in Duck will certainly cause the board members of <i>A Room in the Inn</i> as well as those participating churches to stop and wonder about the future of the outreach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>With minimal government involvement the torch has been taken up by the faith community, where perhaps it belongs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But at what cost?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">As we so tragically learned last week there is risk involved in inviting strangers into your “home”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>No one truly knows the heart of any man or woman and how he or she might react when put into a group to live with other strangers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The question that has to be asked is “Is the risk worth the outcome?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>It may be a difficult question to answer. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Christians are guided into caring because of Jesus actions and words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He was Himself “homeless” during His three years of ministry. <i><span style="color: red;">"Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky<sup> </sup>have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head."</span></i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He recognized that the plight of the poor would ever be with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span><i><span style="color: red;">“You always have the poor with you”</span></i>, and encouraged those with means to be generous to them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Perhaps these words are the most challenging to us. <span style="color: red;"><i>“For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you took care of Me;</i></span><span style="color: red;"></span><span style="color: red;"><i> I was in prison and you visited Me. </i></span><span style="color: red;"></span> </div><span style="color: red;"><i></i></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: red;"><i>"Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink?<sup> </sup>When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or without clothes and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and visit You?’</i></span></div><span style="color: red;"><i> </i></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: red;"><i>"And the King will answer them, ‘I assure you: Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.”</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">And there is the challenge to do <i>something</i> “for the least of these”.&nbsp; Hopefully we can figure what that something is.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"></span></span><br /></div>Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-70623814087250991022015-02-13T11:58:00.003-05:002015-02-13T11:58:52.033-05:00You Do Make History, You Know<div class="MsoNormal"><br /><style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Times New Roman"; panose-1:0 2 2 6 3 5 4 5 2 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:"American Typewriter Light"; panose-1:0 2 9 3 4 2 0 4 2 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; text-autospace:none; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-parent:""; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --></style><b><span style="font-family: &quot;American Typewriter Light&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s no secret to those who know me well, that I’m a history buff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Ask my kids.&nbsp; I've drug them all over the country to see battlefields and national treasures.&nbsp; To me there is something special about learning about and visiting moments in the past that have impacted our present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> To my children, not so much I think.</span></span></b></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;American Typewriter Light&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">That interest for me goes beyond what’s in the history books. In recent years I’ve developed a passion for unearthing my family’s roots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In that research I have not only discovered hundreds of years of ancestry, but also I’ve also found “lost” family members.</span></b></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;American Typewriter Light&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">If history is a “dry” subject to you, consider that it is more meaningful, when it is <i>your own</i></span><span style="font-family: &quot;American Typewriter Light&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">history - when you can place yourself in places and times past.&nbsp; <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>As I’ve grown older I’ve come to realize and appreciate the people whose influence and friendship helped shape me through the years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span></b></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;American Typewriter Light&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">That’s why I go to youth group reunions even though I haven't been a teenager in 40 years. It’s why I look for ways to thank my pastors and professors who taught me academics and God’s Word.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It’s why I rekindle friendships when I can with long-lost friends on Facebook.</span></b></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;American Typewriter Light&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">I had one of those “historical” moments this past Tuesday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>An old childhood friend had died, so I made the trip to Jacksonville, NC for the funeral.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I saw some people I had not seen in over 45 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>We reminisced and had a great time telling old stories and laughing a lot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span></b></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;American Typewriter Light&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Driving after the service to the cemetery on the other side of town I began to realize, “This must be the place!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And as I turned off the highway into the cemetery, indeed, on my left was the pond where Pastor Walter Kirk had baptized me in August, 1966.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Baptized in a cemetery pond…but that’s another story for another time.</span></b></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;American Typewriter Light&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">It was my first return to that special place in my life in almost half a century.&nbsp; It was where I publicly professed Jesus as my Savior and began a life-long journey of following Him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> That's historic!</span></span></b></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;American Typewriter Light&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Treasure your history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>If you are a believer, it is His story in your life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And share that story with your family and friends.</span></b></div>Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-9417486268816281352015-02-09T15:25:00.004-05:002015-02-09T15:25:48.343-05:00Sometimes the Band Wagon is a Poor Ride<div class="MsoNormal"><br /><style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Times New Roman"; panose-1:0 2 2 6 3 5 4 5 2 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-parent:""; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --</style>Poor Brian Williams.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Last week he got busted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span><i>Stars and Stripes</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, the venerable military news source from within the Pentagon exposed him as a liar for saying a chopper on which he was a passenger took enemy fire…or something like that.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Now, years later his “embellishment” has come back to bite him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Realizing he was caught, he quickly broadcast his form of an apology to the military.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I happened to be watching that night, and ignorant of the controversy (sometimes ignorance truly is bliss), I thought, “Not sure what you did, but at least you’ve come clean and said you’re sorry”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And I naively thought that would be the end of that.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">But was I ever wrong!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The next day if you Googled “Brian Williams” the story of his lie and apology lit up the search engine like Christmas trees the day after Thanksgiving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Then, doing what all true investigative reporters do, they began to dig for more dirt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Was this his first lie?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And suddenly the stories multiplied exponentially.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Social media wasn’t about to be left behind on this one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>No, sir.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And the clever memes began to pop up, inserting Williams into photos with Lincoln, with the astronauts landing on the moon, and with him saying he told Frodo where the ring was hidden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s human nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The bad side of it, I guess, to kick a man when he’s down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Even when his slip, his failure, his sin, has an effect on who?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Two thoughts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>First, I’m no big Brian Williams fan to start with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It’s not that I don’t like him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I just would rather listen to another talking head try and convince me of the world’s current events and that they really happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He’s on a network that, shall we say, hasn’t the best reputation for solid journalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Ever watch Today?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It’s more soap opera than news.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">So, his make believe war story, while offensive to some in the military, hasn’t served to ruin my week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Not even my day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The guy told a lie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He got caught.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Now he’s got egg on his face in front of millions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>OK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But aren’t there more important issues facing America and the world right now than a journalist’s fantasy ride?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Get over it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Let’s move on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>No harm, no foul other than his reputation as trustworthy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Brian Williams’ lack of integrity hasn’t changed my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Second, and more important is this: I’m a liar, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Now, I try not to make a habit of telling falsehoods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In fact, I try to be honest to a fault.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>For me, dishonesty and a lack of integrity would jeopardize far too much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">But innocent?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Not me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I did tell my 4<sup>th</sup>grade teacher that it wasn’t me who spilled ink on a page in the World Book encyclopedia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>She knew I was lying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I was the only kid in class with a fountain pen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>(Still can’t explain that one.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I did tell my friend’s older brother that I didn’t know what happened to his pocketknife, when I had taken it off his dresser.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">All that to say this: Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Yes, he should have known this was wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It seems he has a problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But I say let’s forgive him and move on, with or without him on the tube.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I can’t help but raise my eyebrows that it is the media pouncing on Williams, like cannibals feeding on their own kind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I like the Apostle Paul’s words to the Philippian Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>“…whatever is true, whatever is honorable,<sup> </sup>whatever is just, whatever is pure,<sup> </sup>whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence<sup> </sup>and if there is any praise—dwell on these things.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Isn’t it just time to change the channel?</div>Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-70010421119236793282015-01-10T10:08:00.001-05:002015-01-10T10:22:38.522-05:00Holocaust Deja VuIn 2010 I was privileged to visit Paris briefly and Grenoble for a week. &nbsp;Beautiful cities.<br /><br />One of the sites we were able to visit in Grenoble was a Holocaust museum. &nbsp;It provided an excellent look into the extreme troubles French Jews (and non-Jews who were sympathetic) suffered at the hands of an evil ideology, Naziism. &nbsp;I was are of the atrocities in Nazi death camps and the horrific medical experiments which used Jews as guinea pigs, but didn't the history in France. <br /><br />What happened in Europe under Hitler should never be allowed to happen again. &nbsp;But prevention doesn't just happen.<br /><br />Now at the hand of another invading evil it appears the Jewish population in France is experiencing déjà vu 75 years later.<br /><br />When will we learn that a nation's way of life, if grounded in liberty, is worth defending "at the gates"? &nbsp;If we don't learn from history we're doomed to repeat it.<br /><br />Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-30390650371580704082015-01-08T15:30:00.000-05:002015-01-08T19:57:33.534-05:00When It is Time to Limit Someone’s Freedom<br /><style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Times New Roman"; panose-1:0 2 2 6 3 5 4 5 2 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-parent:""; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} </style> --&gt; We've all heard it said, "Faith and politics don't mix".&nbsp; I'm not so sure. <br /><br />I believe that there are some points where faith (and for lack of a better term) political beliefs do intersect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>My understanding of my Christian faith is that it does and should guide all my other beliefs since it is so much of who I am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>So, for me and most folks who have any sort of religious convictions, saying we must separate our faith from our politics is quite difficult, if not unreasonable <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">This week’s terrorist attack in Paris – the latest in a string of Islamic induced atrocities – is one of those intersections.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">As an American who still believes in the basic foundations of our society as framed by the authors of our Constitution I am stronger than horseradish on our freedoms or rights guaranteed by that document.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Two of those freedoms - religion and speech - are magnified in a world where in the name of a god some men feel the right and obligation to squelch the rights of others…even if that squelching means their death.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I’ll defend your right to belittle my faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Likely we won’t have much of a social relationship if you do, but you have that right. Like it or not, our right of free speech endows us with the right to be offensive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But if you are I won’t seek to kill you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And why not? In this country and in western civilization such a right to kill is not recognized.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Likewise, we are blessed to worship as we choose, not as the government chooses for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>That’s the primary reason the Pilgrims exited the Old World.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In England they were told what church was legitimate, and because they chose to practice their faith differently they felt compelled to go somewhere where they might have religious freedom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And for their daring and vision we should be grateful, whether we have adopted their views or not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>We benefit from their sacrifice.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">But as free speech has limits – the SCOTUS says we cannot yell “FIRE” in a theater (for example) – so does the freedom of religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>One such example of a limit is when a man’s religion tells him that it is somehow a “holy” thing to kill “infidels” (those who have another faith).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In a free country sometimes freedom has necessary restrictions to protect the rights of all.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">If indeed, as some who know more about it than I, a basic tenet of Islam (as given in the Koran) is to destroy all “infidels” then should the practice of Islam be allowable as a religion in nations where men and women are free to choose?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>If (and I believe there are) some Muslims who reject that tenet, are they aware of the “fanatics” among us who live to kill non-Muslims?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>If they are, and they are covering up, whether out of fear or out of some sense of fraternity, are they not also guilty?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I’m not sure how, in France for example, once the door is opened to all (regardless that they may hold to beliefs detrimental to the good of society) the door can be shut.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But it’s obvious that in some instances we all can’t just get along.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Maybe France will be stunned enough to realize what they have allowed in the spirit of liberty could spell the end if changes are not made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">And I’m not sure we in America should wait for France, Britain or Germany to show us the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But we had better soon begin to realize that there are times to limit freedom when that freedom threatens to end our way of life.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-13081073308849807932015-01-04T16:15:00.001-05:002015-01-04T16:16:02.755-05:00When You Don't Understand, He DoesNo one looks forward to disappointments, especially those whose occurrences interrupt our well-being via circumstances that are truly out of our control.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Like the quarterback being blindsided by the forearm clothesline of a blitzing linebacker, they can knock the wind right out of our sails and spin us until we’re dizzy…if we let them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And if we’re not careful they will steal our joy and stunt our growth. <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">In the late 80’s I was hired by a contractor from Virginia Beach who was planning on moving into the booming building business here on the Outer Banks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The company was well established in south Hampton Roads, and I was given the assurance that, “We’re planning on being there for the long haul.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Yet, at the completion of their first project here the superintendent called me aside on a Thursday afternoon to tell me the next day would be my last.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>They were pulling up stakes and heading back to Virginia.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">He didn’t know it, but my wife and I were going to sit down that evening and fill out the paperwork to initiate the purchase of a home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Buying that house (it would have been our first to own) was a big step and one we were looking forward to taking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It was another move in our lives toward living the American dream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But dreams aren’t reality and they don’t always come true.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I remember thinking, “What?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>God, are you keeping track of me?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>How could you let this happen?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>My conversation with my wife when I got home was, “You won’t believe this”, and “We can’t buy a house if I don’t have a job”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>To say we were perplexed is putting it mildly.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">It would be great to say that the next day I got a call with a new job offer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But I didn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Instead I filed for unemployment benefits for the first time in my life and found odd jobs to earn some cash to supplement what I was receiving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I guess I never knew from week to week how I would work to make ends meet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">When we feel like we’ve been cut off at the knees and we haven’t been at fault our response boils down to two choices. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>I’ll get bitter about it or I’ll get better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I’ll retreat into rejection mode or I’ll look for the silver-lined cloud and see just how God is going to use this to change me for the better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Either way it is my choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Circumstances can turn me upside down but they can’t ruin me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>If I’m ruined it’s because I chose to be rather than looking for the opportunity to overcome and advance to something new or different.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I’m not a believer that God will not give you more than you can handle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Too many times I’ve seen that proven wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Who made that up, anyway?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It’s not in the Bible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Instead, God will allow the overwhelming in my life to bring me to total dependence on Him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>That verse in Romans 8 continues to ring true as it gives me hope that not only is God watching, He’s ultimately in charge and can find a way that I can’t see to turn what initially appeared a disappointing frustration into a grand blessing in disguise.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Maybe you’re very familiar with these words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Maybe they’re new to you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But here’s a promise from God to those who love Him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>“We know that all things work together<sup> </sup>for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>All things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Even the curve balls and the “I never saw that coming” shockers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>As I was taught years ago, “All means all and that’s all all means”.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Guess what?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>2015 is going to bring some of those kinds of unpleasant surprises your way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>How you respond to them is your choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But if you kick and fight against what God may be doing to move you to the next level because you don’t immediately understand it you might just miss out on the best things to come.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-90341002157547477432014-12-21T15:18:00.002-05:002014-12-21T15:32:32.397-05:00With An Infant's Cry the War was Won<i><br /></i><style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Times New Roman"; 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margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; <span aria-haspopup="true" role="menuitem" tabindex="-1" id=":z.12" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">mso</span>-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} table.<span aria-haspopup="true" role="menuitem" tabindex="-1" id=":z.13" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">MsoNormalTable</span> {<span aria-haspopup="true" role="menuitem" tabindex="-1" id=":z.14" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">mso</span>-style-parent:""; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; <span aria-haspopup="true" role="menuitem" tabindex="-1" id=":z.15" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">mso</span>-header-margin:.5in; <span aria-haspopup="true" role="menuitem" tabindex="-1" id=":z.16" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">mso</span>-footer-margin:.5in; <span aria-haspopup="true" role="menuitem" tabindex="-1" id=":z.17" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">mso</span>-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --></style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><i>And Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family line of David, to be registered along with Mary, who was engaged to him&nbsp; and was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. Then she gave birth to her firstborn Son, and she wrapped Him snugly in cloth and laid Him in a feeding trough—because there was no room for them at the inn.<br /><br />In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock. Then an angel of the Lord stood before&nbsp; them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: 11today a Savior, who is Messiah the Lord, was born for you in the city of David. This will be the sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped snugly in cloth and lying in a feeding trough."</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying:</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people He favors!</i>&nbsp; </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>When the angels had left them and returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let’s go straight to Bethlehem and see what has happened, which the Lord has made known to us."</i>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal">- Luke 2:4-15</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Usually in the battle in a great war in those days there would have been a massive army gathered to fight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In this story, the massive army&nbsp; - the angelic host - didn’t come to fight but to announce that the war had been won.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Usually a trumpet sounded the advance of the army followed by the battle cry of hundreds or thousands of soldiers, heard for miles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Here the cry of victory was the soft whimper of a newborn baby being placed in his mother’s arms. Usually the conquering general would raise his army’s flag over the conquered kingdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But here a tiny infant was lowered into a manger – a box from which animals ate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Here in this stable the greatest war of all eternity was won.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>On a silent night in the little town of Bethlehem God won the "War of the Worlds" as He became human to win back what Adam had given up by his sin and what we all lost through our own sin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">God never quit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He never gave up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He cannot fail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>His promises are true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And His promise to each and every one of us is eternal life if we will turn from ourselves and our ideas of our worth and put our total faith and trust in the Savior, Christ the Lord.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">God won the war in the most unconventional of ways.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">(Taken from Pt. 3 of "War of the Worlds", a three part series preached at Nags Head Church.&nbsp; The series can be heard via podcast at <a href="http://nagsheadchurch.org/">nagsheadchurch.org</a>.)</span></div>Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-60529564768181842162014-11-26T10:57:00.003-05:002014-11-26T10:57:50.541-05:00Words Have Meaning<b>&nbsp;</b><style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Times New Roman"; panose-1:0 2 2 6 3 5 4 5 2 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:"American Typewriter Light"; panose-1:0 2 9 3 4 2 0 4 2 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; text-autospace:none; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-parent:""; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --></style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;American Typewriter Light&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Words are crucial to our communication, aren’t they?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Without words and the ability to use them, whether verbally or via writing or sign language, communication can either come to a complete halt or at the least bring confusion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span></b></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;American Typewriter Light&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">The God who created the universe in all its vastness has chosen to communicate with us through His “Word”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The word “Word” has two applications in the Scripture.</span></b></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;American Typewriter Light&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">First, is the </span><i><span style="font-family: &quot;American Typewriter Light&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">written</span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;American Typewriter Light&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Word, the Bible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He used 30+ authors to write down in 66 books what He wanted us to know about Him, about life, about eternity, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Because the Bible is God’s <i>inspired</i></span><span style="font-family: &quot;American Typewriter Light&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"> word – that means “God breathed” it, it is perfect and without error.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He had the authors write exactly what He wanted to say.</span></b></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;American Typewriter Light&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Second is the “Word made flesh” – the description John gives us in John 1 of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who came to earth in human form to reveal with even greater intimacy just who God is.</span></b></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;American Typewriter Light&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Unlike our human vocabularies, where the meanings of words change frequently (“sick” now means very cool) God’s Word, reveals His character, which is <i>immutable</i> – never changing.</span></b></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;American Typewriter Light&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Be careful these days when some, even well-meaning believers want to change God’s words to mean things He did not intend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span></b></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><b> </b><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;American Typewriter Light&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Jesus and the Bible are His Word and He’s sticking to it.</span></b></div>Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-35700198786682855442014-10-08T16:35:00.001-04:002014-10-08T16:35:42.267-04:00Sometimes You Need a Sledge Hammer<style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Times New Roman"; panose-1:0 2 2 6 3 5 4 5 2 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-parent:""; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --></style> <br /> <div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">My senior year of high school I was invited by some other teenagers in my church to attend a weekly Bible study in another northern Virginia town about 15 minutes (in those days) away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>At that time in my life I was more than excited about my relationship with Christ, and the opportunity to learn more was welcome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It didn’t hurt either that I discovered there were some pretty girls there as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Hey, I was 17.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">A 30-something couple in our church had opened up their home for the study.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He was a contractor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I don’t remember where she worked, but they just loved being catalysts for teens opening God’s Word and having their lives changed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Each week we’d meet in their living room for a couple of hours, Bibles and heart open.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I’d bring my guitar and we’d sing some of those early Jesus people songs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The combination of love from the hosts and learning truth from the Scriptures caused the numbers to grow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The living room was packed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Then this couple made a decision that has stuck with me for over 40 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Not wanting to stifle the growth of the study by a lack of room they decided to tear out a wall between their living and dining rooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It wasn’t long thereafter that sledge hammers were punching holes in the walls, wiring was re-routed, two-by-fours relocated and voila, two rooms became one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Now the numbers of kids could continue to grow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>More would be invited. More would understand God’s grace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Tearing out a wall in your house for kids who aren’t even your own is a pretty radical step.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But it was a step they felt compelled by their love for Christ and us that they knew was the right, even though some might feel extreme thing to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But, genuine Christianity has been marked by radical moves, tearing down walls for centuries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>A crisis arises, and rather than say what can’t be done someone steps out of the box and does what others never dream of doing.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">In once scene from Jesus’ life something similar was done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In Mark 2 the story is reported how Jesus was teaching in a house in the Galilean city of Capernaum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The house was so crowded there was only room outside to hear through the doors and windows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">In the same town was a paralytic with four friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>They had heard that the Nazarene had miracle working ability and thought if they could just get their friend to Jesus perhaps He would mercifully heal him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But there was no room in the house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>But these guys weren’t about to let some brick and mortar stop them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Up the back stairs they went, carrying their friend to the roof on a stretcher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Then they began to strip away the ceiling tiles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>When they had uncovered a large enough opening they lowered their friend by ropes to where Jesus was teaching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Seeing their faith – faith enough to do whatever it took – Jesus told the paralyzed man to get up, pick up the stretcher and go home healed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And he did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">But what if the four friends had seen the crowd and not tried the radical?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The roof could be repaired, but their friend might not get another chance to meet Jesus.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Are you locked into dreaming little?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Sometimes the answer is on the other side of the wall or roof.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>You may just have to take some risks and punch a hole to get through.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">By the way, the wife in the couple who opened their home so many years ago has recently learned that she has advanced cancer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The doctors have given her weeks to live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Should she meet her Savior sooner than later, I wonder if someone up there will introduce her to the four in Capernaum who loved their friend enough to tear a whole in the roof.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>If so, I’m sure some high fives will be exchanged.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>*<i> My friend slipped into eternity a few days ago, two weeks after I originally wrote this for The Outer Banks Sentinel.</i><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-77952154002595216212014-08-29T10:20:00.000-04:002014-08-29T10:20:16.714-04:00When God’s Way Out Isn’t a Miracle&nbsp;<style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Times New Roman"; panose-1:0 2 2 6 3 5 4 5 2 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-parent:""; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --></style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span style="color: green; font-variant: small-caps;"></span>Rescued and kept secure by the army of the Emperor, his enemies were more than ever committed to his death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But they could not overtake the well-guarded fortress in which he was confined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>So a plan was conceived to bring him out into the open in a ruse to bring him for a second and calm talk with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But on the way to the meeting he (and presumably any escorting soldiers) would be overcome and he would be assassinated. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Some forty conspirators pledged a solemn vow that they would neither eat or drink until Paul was killed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Letting their elders in on the plot they would have had a better chance of being successful had they kept it to themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But somehow Paul’s sister’s son heard of the conspiracy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Somehow he was in the right place at the right time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Caring for his uncle, he went into the Roman barracks where he was sequestered and let him in on the plan for his murder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>At Paul’s instruction he took what he had heard and knew to the Roman commander, a man named Lysias, who thanked him and instructed him to tell no one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Then at night, in the cover of darkness Paul was led out of the city, guarded by 200 soldiers, 70 cavalry and 200 spearmen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">When in the morning his potential assassins learned he had escaped the night before and was guarded by such a large contingent they must have wondered who spilled the beans.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">We know of at least three occasions in the book of Acts where God supernaturally intervened when His Apostles had been in danger and were in jail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Twice Peter was let out with the assistance of an angel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And Paul and Silas, in the jail in the Greek city of Philippi were freed by an earthquake at midnight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But God doesn’t always use miraculous divine and supernatural interventions to assail what seems to be the impossible in the lives of His children.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Here in Acts 23 He used Paul’s nephew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It was providential, but certainly not miraculous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>God just made sure the nephew was in the right place at the right time to overhear some zealous men talking about how they would take care of Paul.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">But, what if, when the nephew came to Paul and told him about the plot, Paul had said, “Don’t tell anyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Let’s just see what miracle God might perform”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">There are preachers who will tell you that the way out of debt is to send them some “seed money”, and God will miraculously multiply that amount back to you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And if you need a miracle for your health, let’s say they’ll invite you to put one hand on the TV while they pray for you, while with the other hand you’re reaching for you wallet to send them some cash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">More likely, the way out is to cut unnecessary expenses, live on a budget and honor God in your giving, as you are able.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The answer to our deepest needs and troubles is always provided by God, it’s just not always something unexplainably supernatural.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Be careful when you hear someone say, “Look for your next miracle”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The real answer form God might be as simple as cutting up your credit card.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Then God had the pagan Romans provide Paul with safety and security to his next stop on the way to Jerusalem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Again, no mention is made of guardian angels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Unlike Philip in Acts 9 being “carried away by the Spirit” from one location to another, Paul rode a horse at night in the cover of darkness escorted and protected by 270 GIs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Taxpayers provided Paul’s protection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But that’s how God did it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He’s God, and He can cover us however He chooses.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Just don’t be upset when the sea doesn’t part.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>You might not need a miracle… maybe just an alert nephew.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-23009861223737579732014-08-18T10:09:00.001-04:002014-08-21T09:58:55.844-04:00Blessed Assurance [Updated]<br /><style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Times New Roman"; panose-1:0 2 2 6 3 5 4 5 2 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-parent:""; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} </style> --&gt; <div class="MsoNormal">My mom called Friday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Mom’s old school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>No email.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>No Facebook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>No texts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>She doesn’t have a computer, but she does have a cell phone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But even when she calls I think in her mind it’s still “long distance”, so the conversations are brief and to the point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And for some reason, at this stage of her life, when I look at my ringing phone and see “Mom”, I wonder what bad news might be coming.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The night before my dad’s oldest lifelong friend was taken to the hospital by his wife.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He complained that his head felt like it was about to explode.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I’ve known this man, I guess since infancy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He and dad were boyhood friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>They played together, joined the Marines together and it seemed like they competed to see which one could produce the most offspring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Dad lost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He only had five.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Eventually they both wound up in Viet Nam, and then came home to finish out their military careers and move on to other ventures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>For many years they somehow lost touch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But in mid-life they “found” each other again, and what they found made their friendship even better and deeper, for they discovered they were no longer simply best friends, they were brothers.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Let me explain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>They were not physically related.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But in their post-Viet Nam years they had both, unbeknown to one another, committed their lives to Jesus Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And as it often happens, their families followed dad’s example and became Christians as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Then, when again they connected and began to talk about their lives they were overjoyed to hear of their own separate but similar faith journeys.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Now Dad’s best buddy is dying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The doctors give him no hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And after all, he’s pushing 80 years old.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>There’s not much his body can do to rebound from a massive brain hemorrhage. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I’ve tried to get some updates by checking his Facebook page.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>(Yes, he does Facebook and has tried without success to get my dad into the 21<sup>st</sup> Century.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Here are some of the most recent comments posted to his page that I’ve found.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">“So you are going to sneak out of here and let the rest of us here to deal with all the junk that's going on...”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>(He was very vocal about social and political issues.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">“Love you granddad going to miss you, but I know I will see you again. We are praying for everyone.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">“We are going to miss you.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">One grandson posted a poem he wrote, titled “Poppa’s Love”.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">What I didn’t find was silence, as if they were afraid to address the inevitable truth: our dad/grandfather is dying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I didn't see fear of the unknown.&nbsp; In fact I read comments that made his death sound more like a transfer to a new duty post than an end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> I read peace.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">But that’s how Christians respond to death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>We don’t “grieve like the rest, who have no hope” as though all is lost and gone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>That’s because when a man or woman puts their faith and hope in Christ, it is faith and hope for eternal life. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Death is only a change of location, and while we do grieve, it is not a hopeless feeling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Because of Jesus’ resurrection our hope is that the grave will not hold us either.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">I read their comments and so admire them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And I’m glad I understand what they say and what they feel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Jesus said, <i>"I assure you: Anyone who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.” (Jn. 5:24)</i></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">The old Gospel song we sang said, "Blessed assurance!&nbsp; Jesus is mine.&nbsp; O, what a foretaste of glory divine.&nbsp; Heir of salvation.&nbsp; Purchased of God.&nbsp; Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.&nbsp; This is my story, this is my song." &nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">When the end comes there can be peace if that is your song.&nbsp; Life without Jesus means death without Him, too.&nbsp; Choose Jesus.&nbsp; Choose peace.<i>&nbsp;</i></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><i>[UPDATE:His oldest son posted this on Facebook this morning, 8/21/14]&nbsp;</i></span><br /><i>"No words will ever express the debt I owe you. There is no way to fill the void. You are my hero, and I want to be just like you when I grow up; I always have. Enjoy His presence; see you soon. Love you."</i><br /><br /><span><span data-reactid=".3t"><a class="UFILikeLink accessible_elem" data-reactid=".3t.0" href="https://www.facebook.com/PastorPM?fref=ts#" role="button" title="Like this"></a></span></span> Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-72098403143540904082014-08-11T10:11:00.000-04:002014-08-11T10:11:10.246-04:00Are You Ready for the Darkest Valley?<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"></span></div>The Apostle Paul was on his way to Jerusalem after wrapping up a long, five-year journey through the Roman province of Asia, Macedonia and Greece.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It was his third missionary venture, and as was his history, it was one of personal risk and threats against his life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>There were those who simply wanted the great Christian evangelist silenced, even if it meant assassination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span> <div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Sharing some final thoughts with the elders of the church in the Asian capitol city of Ephesus – men in whom he had personally invested three years of instruction and mentoring – he opened up as to how he could go on in the face of persecution when most would likely have given up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>His words are almost superhuman.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">"And now I am on my way to Jerusalem, bound in my spirit, not knowing what I will encounter there, except that in town after town the Holy Spirit testifies to me that chains and afflictions are waiting for me. But I count my life of no value to myself, so that I may finish my course<sup> </sup>and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God’s grace.” – Acts 20:22-24</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Life for Paul was wrapped up, not in himself or his own wants, but in serving out the purpose given Him by the Lord.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The possibility of death was not concern for him since, as he wrote to the Philippian church, “To live is Christ and to die is gain”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It wasn’t that Paul had a death wish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>There was much he wanted to accomplish in life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But he had this incredible contentment in knowing his life was totally in God’s hands.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">On the journey to Jerusalem Paul was twice urged rather passionately by caring friends not to go on to the city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>They had some “inside information”, revealed to them by the Holy Spirit that something horrible awaited him there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Even his fellow missionary Luke tried to talk him out of the trip, but Paul would have none of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>His heart was set on getting to Jerusalem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>His response to their attempts to dissuade him was, “I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Men who hated him and the message he preached were waiting for him there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He knew that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Yet he wasn’t afraid and in fact was ready for whatever would happen “for the name of the Lord Jesus”.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Like you, I’m sure, I have been shocked beyond words at the reports of the atrocities happening in Iraq as ISIS, a group filled with hate for anyone who dares believe in a different God than their own seems hell-bent on annihilating entire cultures from existence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Children are being beheaded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Young girls are seized, raped and sold off as slaves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Men are crucified in front of their families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And all because they claim faith in Jesus Christ.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">As I read the reports and see the pictures I am beyond words and cannot find the right emotions as I think of innocent men, women and children suffering such horrors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>What bothers me as well is the thought that it is only by the grace of God that I wasn’t born in Iraq.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Who am I to escape their hell?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Who am I to be so blessed as to be an American?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And more, if I was one of the Christians in the path of the evil swath cut by these Islamic extremists, would I deny my Savior to escape certain death?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Would I, like Paul, be ready when death seemed certain?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Frankly, I don’t know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I want to say, “Yes!”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But if it was my child with a rifle pointed to his head; if it was my wife or daughter being dragged away to be raped and worse; if it were my hands and feet about to be nailed to a cross, would I cave or would I die with courage?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Would I be ready?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Please join me in praying for those who will pay the ultimate price in this genocide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Join me in praying for someone to intercede on their behalf.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>My heart breaks for what is happening, and I know yours does as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Let’s hope they are ready.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-51506569633014963552014-07-31T11:25:00.000-04:002014-07-31T11:26:12.391-04:00Driving Down the StakeToday marks an anniversary for me, one that many would argue is the most significant of my life.&nbsp; And I would not disagree.<br /><br />Although I can never remember not going to church as a boy, it wasn't until I was ten that the purpose for Christ coming to be a man, live a perfect life, die an unjust death by crucifixion and then rise from the dead "clicked" within me.&nbsp; I could tell you many Bible stories, and sing you many songs about the love of God.&nbsp; And I was a pretty good kid.&nbsp; But not until I was ten did it impact me personally.<br /><br /><br />I don't remember everything the pastor of the little Baptist church preached.&nbsp; But I do remember his sermons about the return of Christ, especially <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+24%3A36-44&amp;version=HCSB" target="_blank">Jesus' comparison </a>of that event to the ark and Noah.&nbsp; One day, Pastor Kirk told us, God would close the door and it would be too late to get in.<br /><br />I didn't want to be left out.&nbsp; And while I knew as much about the Bible as a young boy could know, I had never by faith put my eternity in Christ's hands.&nbsp; When the preacher asked us to raise our hands if we <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+5%3A11-13&amp;version=HCSB" target="_blank"><i>knew</i></a> we were ready to meet the Lord should He come, I knew I could not and was not.&nbsp; And that bothered me enough that sometime that week, as best I knew how I <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=HCSB&amp;search=John%201:12-13" target="_blank">believed in Jesus</a>.<br /><br />At our church the way you drove the stake of a decision like that into the ground was to "come forward" during the final song of the service, take the pastor's hand and tell him why you were brave enough to slip from your seat and in front of everyone "walk the aisle".&nbsp; So, during the week I worked up the courage - even told my mom what I was going to do - and as soon as the first stanza of whatever song it was began, I responded to the "invitation".&nbsp; <br /><br />After spending a few minutes with a kind gentleman in the church back in the choir room, who made sure I understood my need for the Savior, I was brought back into the service and standing beside the pastor, introduced as a new believer in Christ.&nbsp; That day was July 31, 1966.&nbsp; Although I am sure it was earlier in the previous week when I believed, that's the day I look back to as when the stake was driven and my eternal destiny confirmed in my heart.<br /><br />Three weeks later, in a mud-bottomed pond in a cemetery (I think the perfect setting for a death, burial and resurrection) I began the life of a disciple of Christ by obeying <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+28%3A19&amp;version=HCSB" target="_blank">His command</a> to be baptized.&nbsp; <br /><br />Life for me began anew that summer.&nbsp; I didn't understand it all then, and certainly don't understand it all now.&nbsp; But I'm forever grateful that God opened my heart to grasp the Good News that God wanted me in His family, and that it was an easy decision to make.&nbsp; <br /><br />If you haven't driven that stake yet, the Bible says that "<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Corinthians+6%3A2&amp;version=HCSB" target="_blank">today</a>" is a great day to do so.&nbsp; Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-63930651989492232292014-07-14T14:23:00.000-04:002014-08-01T12:30:51.999-04:00Fellowship with my church. Important or impotent?<span style="color: #45818e;"><i>On the first day of the week, we assembled to break bread.&nbsp; Paul spoke to them, and since he was about to depart the next day, he extended his message until midnight. - Acts 20:7</i></span><br />&nbsp; <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: green;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">This is the clearest verse in the New Testament that indicates Sunday was the normal meeting day of the apostolic church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Although it’s not commanded, it is their example, and one that the church has followed for over 2,000 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Because it is not commanded (and Sunday is not the "Sabbath" of the Big Ten), we have liberty today to worship corporately whenever.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">(I'm excited to hear of churches that have multiple worship gatherings on Sundays and because of growth need to find other days as well.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Because our country was founded by Christians (read their documents), Sunday was go-to-church day for them and our culture originally viewed it as <span style="color: purple;">“The Lord’s Day”.&nbsp; <span style="color: black;">So, it was a standard </span></span>day off for most everyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; My generation can r</span>emember back not too long ago when most stores were closed on Sundays?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Why was that?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It goes back to our Christian roots as a nation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>At one time virtually <i>everybody</i> went to church in America.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">But going to church for tradition or because it's expected can ring very shallow.&nbsp; There ought to be more, don't you think?&nbsp; Something changes in my life when I <i>want</i> to do something and am passionate about it, opposed to <i>having</i> to do something that I just don't see as important.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">How important was fellowship to these first century Christians?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Apparently they put everything else aside to eat and fellowship and be taught through the night on Sunday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And consider that in their <i>pagan</i> culture Sundays were no different from any other days.&nbsp; So it likely wasn’t a day off, unless they took it off, or were self-employed and set their own schedules.&nbsp; Many of them were probably slaves and had no choice when they worked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">So, on the Lord's Day, after a full day of labor, they went home, whipped up something for the pot luck dinner and headed to the place of fellowship and worship.&nbsp;&nbsp; That made for a long day. &nbsp;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>And in this occasion they didn’t just have a normal (whatever that meant to them) Sunday evening service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; The Apostle Paul was in town and would be speaking at their church that night.&nbsp; Everybody would want to be there!&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Luke graciously let's us know that </span>Paul was long-winded!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; He "extended his message until midnight"!&nbsp; So passionate about gathering together were these believers that e</span>ven sleep was less important to them than being together as a church.&nbsp; </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I have pastor friends who tell me how upset people in their churches get if the service goes past noon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>They will tap on their watches, or set their alarms for 12:00 to let the preacher know that "his" time is up.&nbsp; Some, they tell me,&nbsp; will get up and leave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>For them beating the Methodists to the lunch buffet or Cracker Barrel is priority #1. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">And without exception, those kinds of churches, filled with believers who have more important things to do on the Lord’s Day than worship and fellowship, are weak, sick and powerless. Perhaps if we had more of this passion for the church and fellowship and teaching we might see God revive the churches in America.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>Perhaps one day they'll wake up to the fact that without the church we who are Christians are left to deal with a world out to destroy our faith and our families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>That’s why the Bible assumes every Christ-follower will partner with a local church.&nbsp; That's why apart from the protective umbrella of the church we’re like sheep outside the fold and easy prey for the wolves.&nbsp; Hanging with the church is a powerful detriment to wandering, starving and disappearing back into a world from which we were salvaged.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">Jesus didn't create the church out of boredom.&nbsp; The church is so important to Him that we're told in Ephesians 5 that He died for "her".&nbsp; She's His bride.&nbsp; When we who profess Him as our Lord lose our passion for being with this amazing family there should be warning lights flashing that our hearts are in danger of finding other loves.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><br /><span style="background-color: white;">&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: black;"></span> Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-12898279325848967812014-06-17T23:43:00.000-04:002014-06-17T23:43:09.466-04:00I'm Not As Dumb As I LookIn some ways pastors are like cops.&nbsp; You know, (maybe you really know) how when a cop pulls someone over for an infraction and some sort of excuse is given that is so contrived and contradictory, that the cop thinks, "This guy really believes I'm dumber than dirt".<br /><br />Often I'll run into a, shall I say, "lapsed" church member...someone who hasn't darkened the door of my church for let's say at least a year.&nbsp; I hear all kinds of excuses...<br /><br />"I've been really busy".&nbsp; Oh.&nbsp; And the rest of us get eight days in our week and just sit around with nothing to do.<br /><br />"I've found a church that better suits my family's schedule."&nbsp; So you're telling me they don't meet on Sunday mornings?<br /><br />"I'm more suited to such and such church because their music is quieter."&nbsp; So, when you joined our church, with its loud music, were you being dishonest with your sincere desire to partner with us?<br /><br />Stuff like that.&nbsp; <br /><br />But check out what I heard this morning..."I've been going to church with my boyfriend to such and such church at 11:00."&nbsp; Then a sentence or two later, "I really want to go to 'my church' (which happens to be the church I pastor where she hasn't been seen for several years), but I have to work every Sunday."&nbsp;<br /><br />So, which is it?&nbsp; You're going to church with your boyfriend on Sundays or you're working on Sundays?&nbsp; Seems to me it can't be both.&nbsp;<br /><br />Get real.&nbsp; I might look it, but I'm not that dumb.&nbsp; Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-50802295236121766302014-03-05T11:08:00.000-05:002014-03-05T11:08:17.351-05:00If You Liked the Movie, Read the Book!<div class="MsoNormal">Like much of culture Hollywood understands fads…especially if there’s money to be made from them.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Classics like “The Ten Commandments”, “The Robe”, “The Greatest Story Ever Told” and “Ben Hur” had their more that fair share of success.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Disney even got into the Bible story genre with its animated “Prince of Egypt”, telling the life of Moses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Ten years ago (has it been that long) Mel Gibson’s film, “The Passion of the Christ” surprised the Hollywood establishment. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Who thought a very graphic movie about the last twelve hours of Jesus’ life spoken in Aramaic with subtitles would gross over 600 million dollars worldwide?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The film industry saw then that, indeed, film-goers, especially those in America would turn out in droves to see movies based on Bible characters, even if they were highly religious in content.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Now another adaptation of the life of Jesus, “Son of God”, is on the big screen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Actually it is an edited reprise of last year’s television mini-series “The Bible”, extracting the best scenes from that portrayal’s life of Jesus and marketing it to the cinema.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>If early indications hold true it will be successful as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Its first weekend showed a take of 26.5 million dollars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And really, it’s a rerun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Not quite the 83.8 million Gibson’s film earned, but good enough to come in at #2 nationwide.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Some more fundamentalist critics have picked apart what they see as diversions from the scriptural accounts and for that reason have discouraged attendance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>While the producers have claimed their own Christian faith, they are not theologians and like all other Hollywood productions have used “artistic license” in telling the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But most evangelical and Catholic voices find it a worthy film.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I’ve not yet seen it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Not sure that I will, only because I choke at the price of admission to a movie these days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But I may, and if I do I may invite some friends – maybe those who either aren’t believers or who find Jesus interesting, yet aren’t “into” the church thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Anything that can spur conversations about Jesus can’t be a bad thing.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Let me encourage you to do a couple of things as we draw closer to the Passion Week.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">First, for those who celebrate Lent, go see the movie (unless you gave up movie-going).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I don’t personally get into the season of Lent – it’s not part of my tradition -&nbsp; but talking with many who do I hear more about them and what they’re giving up than I do about Christ and what He gave up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>That’s just my impression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>So go see the movie and let its images be imprints on your minds as you journey to the cross and the resurrection this season.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Make it different than before.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">And for all of us I would encourage you to use the movie as an appetizer to the real meal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Over the next 40 days why not prepare your hearts for the horror that was Jesus’ crucifixion and the exultation that is Easter by reading the Gospels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all tell The Story from their four different, but divinely inspired viewpoints.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It is such a compelling story, and told without “artistic license”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Get into the Word.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>By it comes faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And we could all use more of that.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">And if you don’t own a copy of the Bible I’ll give you one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Just stop by and see me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It’s worth the read.</div>Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-68210509544720386872014-01-28T20:48:00.003-05:002014-01-28T20:57:04.290-05:00DiehardsSometimes as a pastor you wonder if the message really gets through.&nbsp; And then there are days when you are reminded that you are part of an amazing group of people who no only get it, but truly live to serve.<br /><br />At <a href="http://www.nagsheadchurch.org/" target="_blank">Nags Head Church</a> we have purposefully built our ministries around and on the shoulders of our volunteers.&nbsp; At many churches, especially those like ours that are nowhere near mega-status, nor can be, congregants are content to let the ministries of the church be run by the pastor, or if he's fortunate enough, the pastor and staff.&nbsp; That mindset totally misses the dynamic of the church that the Apostle Paul shared with the <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+4%3A11-16&amp;version=NLT" target="_blank">Ephesian church</a>.&nbsp; It's our belief that in a healthy church every part(ner) does <a href="http://storage.cloversites.com/nagsheadchurch/documents/Doing%20My%20Part.pdf" target="_blank">his/her part</a>.<br /><br />That implies that every one who belongs to the local church has a part to play.&nbsp; Gifts, passion, skills, and life experiences all come into play, making each partner in the church different and with the potential to offer something significant when Christ has His place of lordship in their lives.&nbsp; And it doesn't have to be the "mature" who contribute.&nbsp; More often than not it is the "newbies" - those young in their faith whose enthusiasm sparks a fire under the rest of us.<br /><br />All this week our church is providing shelter and meals to a group of homeless residents in our community.&nbsp; We do this twice a year during the winter months, part of a cooperative effort among other churches here.&nbsp; This ministry in our church is put together, organized and led totally by volunteers.&nbsp; Our small groups take on the bulk of the meals and providing chaperones who spend the nights.<br /><br />Today and tonight we're in the middle of a snow storm, with winds gusting at 40 MPH and temps dipping into the low 20's.&nbsp; The roads are getting iced over, making driving icy and dicey.&nbsp; Yet, a team of volunteers came in late this afternoon ready to serve a meal they had prepared to seven men and two women who have nowhere else to go.&nbsp; None of our volunteers complained about the weather, or let it dampen their spirits at all.&nbsp; They served with gladness.<br /><br />One even went back out into the storm to pick up a food item for one of our guests.&nbsp; He didn't have to do that.&nbsp; In fact, no one said, "Hey, would someone go out and pick up some tuna fish?".&nbsp; He just got up and and went for it.<br /><br />But that's the way these folks at our church serve, not just in an outreach like this, but in all the varied ministries that are the nuts and bolts of the church.&nbsp; I was there tonight, more as an observer than anything else.&nbsp; Also because I knew there would be a great meal!&nbsp; But I found myself thankful for these ministers - these partners in the faith using their gifts, passions and skills to invest the life of Christ they have received into those who may or may not yet know Him.<br /><br />Tomorrow the roads will be worse.&nbsp; But more who have committed to serving will do their best to come and do their part.&nbsp; Perhaps others, who have four wheel drive vehicles and have said they will step up and provide transportation if needed will do just that.&nbsp; But together, with hearts that seek after Christ, the job will be done to the glory of God.&nbsp; They see i as just doing their part.<br /><br />This is one of those latter times as a pastor.Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-14106746457645680302014-01-22T09:46:00.004-05:002014-01-22T09:46:44.609-05:00Life as the Imago Dei<br /><div class="MsoNormal">In all of the life on planet Earth, including plant life, animal life and humanity only one species carries within each member the greatest distinctive of them all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It can’t be seen by a microscope or through DNA testing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It’s not the result of some evolutionary mutation or genetic drift.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Science can’t repeat it in a laboratory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In fact, many scientists would argue it does not exist.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">The foundational story of God’s creative work on earth tells us that when He made the first human He did so by crafting them in a fashion totally different than any other living creature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>“<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God;</span><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"> He</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">created them male and female.” (Genesis 1:27)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">So much could be drawn from that one sentence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But because today is the 41<sup>st</sup> anniversary of Roe v. Wade I’ll just focus on who we are: created in God’s image.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">How is it then that animals and plants, not bearing the image of their Creator rank higher on the preservation list than those who do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>How is it that in the minds of some piping plovers and sea turtles must be protected at all costs, yet ending the life of unborn humans – the only of God’s creation for which Christ died – should be no one’s business but that of a woman and her doctor? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>How is it?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">The answer must be that somewhere we lost the sacredness of whom we are: bearers of the image of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I don’t know when that brick in our cultural foundation was lost, but on January 22, 1973 it was chiseled out by those who should be protecting the rights of the most helpless rather than labeling them persona non grata.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">As a result some fifty million Americans never got a chance to allow God’s image imprinted within them from the moment dad’s sperm hooked up with mom’s egg.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Forty- one years of canceled life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>That would equal two generations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Could within them have been the mind that would have found the cure for cancer or AIDS?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I guess we’ll never know.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Lest you think I have taken on a political tone today, I assure you for me it is not about politics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It is about our moral and spiritual compass losing its frame of reference – its true north.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The image of God was buried under the pretense of reproductive rights and convenience while we closed our minds to the rights of the unborn.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Until this greatest American injustice is reversed there is something we can do to mitigate the continued loss of lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>We can teach our children to be sexually responsible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>We can instill within them values that include life being sacred.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>We can adopt those born to parents unable or unwilling to provide home and family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And we can pray.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Just a little over six years ago I stood in the NICU at Duke, wearing a sterile hospital gown, a sterile mask and sterile latex gloves looking in fear, awe and wonder at a tiny micro-preemie born at 1 lb. 6 oz.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I had never seen anyone like that before, and it cemented in my heart and mind what had already been formed in my conscience and ethics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Life is precious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>This was a living, breathing person who bore the image of God.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">She’s now in kindergarten.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>No one gives hugs like hers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Maybe she’ll grow to come up with the cure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Maybe not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But she was given the chance to live, which is what all of us old, young and unborn deserve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Let the image of God come through.</span></div>Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-74985781676071287352013-12-25T09:28:00.000-05:002013-12-25T09:28:03.024-05:00The Greatest Gift <br /><div class="MsoNormal">This is the fourth installment in a Christmas series that seeks to know the reason Christmas was necessary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It began with creation, and how God made everything, including man and woman just as it should have been.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>“Very good” were His words.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Adam and Eve were given complete freedom in a Garden that provided them everything they would ever need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Their one and only restriction was to avoid eating the fruit from a single tree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It was a test designed to give them daily opportunity to prove their love and trust in their Creator Father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>There was no need to eat that fruit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But the perfection of everything God had provided them proved in their minds to be not quite enough.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Eventually the temptation overcame Eve, who then broke down Adam’s resistance as well to the forbidden fruit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Created in the image of God and without a nature to sin they chose by that one act to disobey and rebel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Immediately their spirits’ fellowship with God was broken, and that broken spiritual life was then passed on to all their descendants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>What God had created, including the earth, as “very good” suddenly in a moment was corrupted and dead.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Adam and Eve tried to cover up their newly discovered nakedness with fig leaves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But, apart from the life of the tree from which they were plucked, the fig leaves at best could only give temporary covering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And really, their attempts to hide their sin from God were silly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Ever since men have come up with new ways to make themselves acceptable to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>However, none have removed the taint of human depravity.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">But, God had a plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The Scripture tells us that even before the foundations of the earth were created God knew how to fix broken people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>After all, He created us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>His plan was simple, yet so difficult, both for Him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In fact, His plan would prove to be offensive to humanity because we like to think we can fix ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>We cannot, but God can.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Throughout the Old Testament God promised the One who would provide us the way back to a relationship with Him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He’s called by many names and given many titles in the prophecies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>So many of the stories of God’s deliverance to Israel were to point them to His plan for all of mankind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The Law He gave to them through Moses was not designed to remove their sin, but to make it clear that they had sinned.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Through the prophets He foretold of Bethlehem, a Messiah, Emmanuel, the virgin birth, a descendant of David…so many details were given of the future Savior to let them know all was not lost.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Then when the time was right (Galatians 4:4) God came in human form to become the second Adam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He would be born into poverty, not in a palace, and would live life, with all of its temptations (Hebrews 4:15) never sin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Like Adam, He was born with no innate nature to sin, because like Adam He had no human father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But unlike Adam He would show God’s intent from creation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">More importantly, because of His unique sinlessness, He alone qualified to pay the penalty for Adam’s (and ours by inheritance) sin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>As our substitute He would be crucified, the sinless for the sinful so that we might again have a relationship with the God who created and loves us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>That baby in the manger was far more than a wonderful story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The angels announced His birth to the shepherds that night because this was the long-awaited answer to the ultimate need of every heart.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Most amazing aspect of God’s plan is that the salvation from sin that Jesus came to provide is offered freely to all who believe in Him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Indeed, the Christ of Christmas is the greatest gift ever given.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-89407634627772370202013-12-16T12:21:00.000-05:002013-12-16T12:24:30.857-05:00Why Christmas? Because Everything is Broken. <style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Times New Roman"; panose-1:0 2 2 6 3 5 4 5 2 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-parent:""; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} </style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>(Part 3 of 4.)</i></span> </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">All of us have at some time turned on a mystery television show or movie well into the story line and found that because we missed the beginning we can’t follow the plot.&nbsp; I’ll do that sometimes to my wife…walk in on the middle of a drama and during the next commercial ask, “What’s this all about?”&nbsp; And she’ll try during the commercial break to fill me in enough so I can grasp what is happening.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Even though Christmas is about a birth, and in many ways the ushering in of something new, it’s far from the beginning of the story.&nbsp; In fact, it’s closer to the end.&nbsp; And if you never read or understood the third chapter of Genesis, which is back at the beginning, you could never fully grasp the need for Bethlehem’s babe.&nbsp; And, as we’ll see next week, the incarnation of the Son of God – the Christmas story – was only the first paragraph of the final chapter of the story.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Maybe it is for this reason that Christmas truly has become a most misunderstood celebration.&nbsp; The plea of the familiar children’s Christmas song to “be good for goodness sake” is one example of that misunderstanding because it proposes the impossible.&nbsp; We can’t be good for goodness sake because we are by nature broken.&nbsp; The solution is not to try to be good.&nbsp; The solution is to be fixed by our Maker.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">After God created the heavens and the earth and pronounced it “very good” He then placed the first of our kind, Adam and Eve, in a garden of perfection where every need they might have was met by God in creation.&nbsp; Their Father provided food, shelter, vocation, and companionship all.&nbsp; </span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">He also placed within their daily view a test.&nbsp; God did not create us as robots, but with a free will to choose right from wrong.&nbsp; That test, at fruit bearing tree, was the only one of its kind and served as a proof of Adam and Eve’s love for their Father.&nbsp; Jesus, in His teaching would state that principal this way: “If you love me keep my commandments.”&nbsp; So there was a tension within paradise.&nbsp; There stood the forbidden tree.&nbsp; With it came a warning from God: eat from it and die.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Death was never intended for mankind.&nbsp; Life was to be enjoyed and spent in fellowship with God and with one another, and meant to last forever on a perfect earth.&nbsp; I don’t know if Adam and Eve were actually tempted to cross that line and eat the tree’s fruit prior to Genesis 3 and if they were how difficult was the temptation.&nbsp; We’re not told.&nbsp; Neither are we told how long into their lives it was when the day of infamy came.&nbsp; But no doubt the restriction from God and the warning were a daily remembrance that kept them from falling.&nbsp; That is until one fateful day.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Satan, the deposed worship leader of heaven who led a rebellion of angels against God had been cast down to the earth.&nbsp; And it became his goal to foil and spoil what God had done – create a being with the ability to choose.&nbsp; So Genesis 3 gives us the story of how Eve, then Adam failed, going from perfection to depravity.&nbsp; It’s not a pretty story when you realize all that was lost, not only for the first couple, but for all of their descendants.&nbsp; </span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Some have commented that the third chapter of Genesis is the most important theologically in all the Bible.&nbsp; The impact of that fall, becoming sinners by choice has infected every human born since. We all start dying the moment we are born!&nbsp; </span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">And that’s why Christmas is indeed the total opposite.&nbsp; That’s why Christmas is supposed to be merry!&nbsp; It brings the Good News that God didn’t give up on His creation and that He has the fix to our brokenness. &nbsp;That’s where we’ll go next week.</span></div>Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-52719577606695875182013-12-08T21:16:00.002-05:002013-12-16T12:24:00.712-05:00When Perfection Wasn’t Good Enough<i>(This is part 2 of 4.)</i><br /><i>&nbsp;</i> <style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Times New Roman"; panose-1:0 2 2 6 3 5 4 5 2 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-parent:""; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} </style><br />--&gt; <div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">This month I’m looking at why Christmas was needed.&nbsp; Why did God come to earth, nurtured for nine months in the womb of a virgin to be born a pauper in a stable?&nbsp; The answers are found “in the beginning” – in the first 3 chapters of Genesis.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Last week we saw how God, in His creative work made everything “good”.&nbsp; That’s Genesis 1.&nbsp; Then in the second chapter we’re given more information about the habitat God provided for the man and woman who first dwelt here.&nbsp; There we’re told that from the dust of the ground God crafted Adam.&nbsp; So it isn’t really surprising that when our bodies decay after death they return to “dust”.&nbsp; </span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">But there was Adam, (the perfect man at this point) with a list of tasks, such as naming all the animals, but without someone with whom he could share life.&nbsp; I believe God knew Adam would be lonely.&nbsp; He just wanted Adam to experience being alone so he would have a greater appreciation and love for the partner God then provided him.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Not from the dust, but from a rib in Adam’s side God created woman – another human like him but different.&nbsp; They were to complement one another and to get busy populating the earth with offspring.&nbsp; Theirs was a perfect environment in Eden.&nbsp; All of their needs were met.&nbsp; You can let your imagination run wild and come to the conclusion that they had it good.&nbsp; It was paradise.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Imagine living in a place where you are surrounded with every kind of fruit and vegetable to eat.&nbsp; And it was all perfect.&nbsp; The climate was perfect.&nbsp; It must have been because we’re told Adam and Eve existed in nakedness.&nbsp; I’m thinking about 76 degrees with no humidity and a gentle breeze in the day and a drop to 72 at night.&nbsp; Yeah.&nbsp; That would be about right.&nbsp; They didn’t have to work for anything other than reaching up or down to pick their meals.&nbsp; And Adam never had to contend with a mother-in-law!</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">You would think (at least I do) that in such a perfect, sufficient, idyllic place they would have been satisfied.&nbsp; I try to tell myself that I would have been!&nbsp; But God put a tension there in the Garden.&nbsp; In the form of a fruit tree God designed a way to test the man and woman’s love for Him.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">“And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat<sup> </sup>from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.’"&nbsp; (Genesis 2:16-17)&nbsp; See that one tree?&nbsp; It’s off limits.&nbsp; Everything else is yours.&nbsp; But eat from that one tree and everything changes.&nbsp; Death comes.&nbsp; Perfection is lost.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">I remember as a boy my mother telling me to never play with matches.&nbsp; But I would watch my dad strike a match to light his cigarette and was amazed that the strike produced a flame.&nbsp; I wanted that ability to light a match.&nbsp; But to do that I had to “play with matches” which I had been warned not to do.&nbsp; Yet it never seemed to bring anything bad on Dad when he struck a match.&nbsp; </span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">So one day, when Mom wasn’t looking, I opened a closet door where I knew some matches were kept.&nbsp; Now, I didn’t burn down the house or even start a fire.&nbsp; But I did get burned.&nbsp;&nbsp; The flame came down the match until it came in contact with my never-before-burned flesh and I screamed in pain.&nbsp; A blister quickly formed and it hurt!</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">I should have listened to Mom.&nbsp; Here I am, 50-plus years later and I still remember what happened when my curiosity got the best of me.&nbsp; </span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">God established some limits and boundaries for Adam and Eve.&nbsp; Not because He was a killjoy.&nbsp; Because he loved them.&nbsp; But the day would come when they would exchange that love and the life they had for a momentary pleasure.&nbsp; And that’s why Christmas had to happen.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></span> Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-42998664414038809172013-12-01T18:55:00.001-05:002013-12-01T19:03:51.349-05:00Christmas Looks Back to Creation<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Let me be the last to pronounce that we are in the season of Advent.&nbsp; Even though we’re less than a week after Thanksgiving, we’ve seen the evidence that Christmas is coming for three months in the displays and commercials seeking to condition our minds into pulling out cash and plastic.&nbsp; To a growing number the reason for the season is what stimulates the economy.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Indicative that our society has lost its memory of the meaning of Christmas was the theft last week of a Salvation Army kettle containing perhaps fifty dollars at a Belk store in Hanes Mall in Winston-Salem.&nbsp; </span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Yet it is for these very kinds of wrongs that we need Christmas.&nbsp; I’m going to use my opportunities here in December to explain just why it was necessary for Christ, the Immanuel – “God with us” – to step down from His throne on high to be born in a barn and laid in a feeding trough for livestock.&nbsp; </span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Go back with me all the way…at least all the way as far as our existence is concerned to creation.&nbsp; In the first chapter of Genesis, as God spoke the universe into existence He paused seven times to pronounce each aspect of His creation as “good”.&nbsp; In fact, the last time He looked at our home and said, “It is very good”.&nbsp; Of course it was!&nbsp; God don’t make no junk!&nbsp; (Pardon my grammar.)</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Creating the day and separating it from the darkness of night caused God to say, “It is good”.&nbsp; Separating the dry land from the seas, He called the continents and islands “good”.&nbsp; All of the vegetation He created was “good”, (which let’s us know sandspurs came later).&nbsp; Sun, moon and stars?&nbsp; All “good” according to God.&nbsp; The birds of the sky and the creatures of the sea were “good”.&nbsp; Then He made all the animals that live on the land, from livestock to the creepy-crawlers and said they were all “good”.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">His last creation was us.&nbsp; Putting His own image into humanity was a step above the rest of earth’s occupants.&nbsp; And when that was done verse 31 tells us, “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.”</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Can you imagine with me a world void of any sort of pollution?&nbsp; None of the animal kingdom was on an endangered list because the “good” earth allowed them all to thrive.&nbsp; Think of the brightest, starriest night you can recall.&nbsp; In the beginning every night was like that.&nbsp; It was a perfect world, beautiful in every way.&nbsp; In fact, we’re later told that creation itself was enough to show our world how much our Creator cared when He made all this and that He alone is God.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">But something adverse would take place that ruined perfection, turning God’s masterpiece into much less.&nbsp; Fast-forward to these words of Paul to the Roman church, describing what followed.&nbsp; </span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">“They [mankind] exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is blessed forever.” (Romans 1:25 HCSB)</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Then fast forward again.&nbsp; Way forward this time to one of the last recorded phrases uttered by Christ.&nbsp; In Revelation 21:5 He says, "Look! I am making everything new."&nbsp; His plan is to re-create what has been broken.&nbsp; That day is yet to come.&nbsp; And Christmas was a necessary event in re-creating the earth and final perfection.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><i>(This is the first of four Christmas posts for 2013.&nbsp; They are also being printed in The OuterBanks Sentinel.)</i>Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-49460288588346149292013-11-21T23:02:00.000-05:002013-11-21T23:16:21.775-05:00Where Were You?Every generation has a "day" that anchors their history.&nbsp; For the "greatest" generation it was Pearl Harbor Day.&nbsp; My kids' generation looks back to 9-11-01.&nbsp; Baby boomers claim November 22, 1963 - the day President John Kennedy was assassinated. (Second to that day might be the Beatles' appearance on the Ed Sullivan show.)<br /><br />We ask each other, "Where were you?"<br /><br />I found out he had been killed when our school bus stopped to let us off.&nbsp; Our next door neighbor, Mrs. Fioriti, came running out to meet us, tearfully crying, "President Kennedy has been killed".&nbsp; For a third grader that was a lot to process.<br /><br />If you were around on 11-22-63, where were you?Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891271368543527189.post-55953124243946947162013-10-03T12:06:00.001-04:002013-10-03T12:07:16.769-04:00Well done, Chuck Smith.<div class="post-message-container" data-role="message-container"><div data-role="message-content"><div class="post-message publisher-anchor-color " data-role="message" dir="auto">A giant in the Christian community died today. <br /><br />I was fortunate to have been a high school student in Orange County, CA in the early 70's and saw firsthand the explosion and impact of Calvary Chapel in the lives of young people. Those were the days of the tent, as they outgrew their little church building and began to build something much larger.&nbsp; Under Chuck's leadership Calvary Chapel was the epicenter of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_movement" target="_blank">Jesus Movement</a> that reached kids from coast to coast. My estimate is that 25% of the student body of my high school were born again Christians - and not shy about it - and most of them were reached by Calvary Chapel.<br /><br />After graduating from a Baptist college on the East coast I went back to my home church in Orange to serve as youth pastor. Frequently I made the drive over to Costa Mesa to check out Chuck's teaching on tapes. His commitment to the Word was so strong. And even though we did not agree on some issues, I learned you do not have to be my twin to be my brother.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qTxz5M8SKLI/Uk2VRLqpbjI/AAAAAAAABv0/OHN6ReQVbBo/s1600/cdmcove.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qTxz5M8SKLI/Uk2VRLqpbjI/AAAAAAAABv0/OHN6ReQVbBo/s320/cdmcove.jpg" width="320" /></a>My generation of Christians owes a debt of gratitude for Chuck's vision and pioneering spirit. Contemporary Christian music can point back to Chuck's willingness to let long-haired newly-saved rockers sing their from their hearts and lead in worship. <a href="http://www.maranathamusic.com/" target="_blank">Maranatha! Music</a>, started by Chuck, became the grandfather of our worship music today.<br /><br />Like all visionary leaders Chuck wasn't without controversy. But he always pointed others to Christ and lived his life with integrity. I imagine that should Jesus one day ask all in heaven who were reached with the Gospel by ministries birthed and nurtured by Chuck Smith to stand, the rest of us will be in awe at the multitude on their feet.<br /><br />He's certainly heard the words, "<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2025:21&amp;version=HCSB" target="_blank">Well done</a>" from his Savior.<br /><br />Thank God for Chuck Smith.&nbsp; Pray for revival to sweep America again.<br /><br /></div></div></div>Rick Lawrensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472532417528025895noreply@blogger.com0